Brews

Congratulations on a lovely result. I'm just looking at one of my kits at the moment, with a view to converting to nightfighter, but I wouldn't be reaching the level of detail that you've displayed here. Truly beautiful.

I was just reading about this pilot. He was, at one time, the top-scoring Romanian pilot. He'd shot down a few I-16s during Barbarossa, and a Hurricane in Jan '43 over Stalingrad. After converting to Gustav, he went to town on all the later Sov planes, Il-2, La-5, Pe-2 etc. He was shot down and killed by a He 111 gunner in March,1944.

While the Tiger and Panther, and "88s" were the greatest fear, the greatest danger to an Allied AFV in 1944/45 was "the lone wolf" with a Panzerfaust. While a bit heavy for "standoff" protection, tracks worked well - especially on the front of a Churchill, where the armour was already 100 - 150mm thick. 4" extra would be enough to keep out a Panzerfaust hit. Canadian tanks' trademark was track protection.

Very nicely-done. Btw, this tank was almost bereft of its yellow paint by the time of Alamein (as photos of it after capture show) The sandstorms were quite abrasive, obviously.

That's really beautiful.

I'd consider Airfix's Pe-2 "fairly decent" while the others are "fun to build" but who am I to judge? I picked out a couple of Wehrmacht contenders, actually - to start with. One is half-Sov, though - a 1:72 PST KV-1 with KwK 40 installed up top. The other is ... I was looking for something exclusive to the Eastern Front, but not a T-34 or prop-driven sled. I decided on a Bandai 1:48 Wespe, but I could be coerced into a Trumpeter 1:72 Stuerer Emil. And then there is a 1:32 MiG 3 ...

I have a bit of Sov stuff hanging around. I'm in.

May be too late for you for this build: B-29RADOMETOOL-1.jpg

When I have time, I'll go through more of the individual build threads. Having been altered to this by PM (thanks, Plastix), I can see that you've done a terrific job of the diorama. To save me a bit of time, what was the brand of that Tiger model? Surely not the old Hasegawa!? Great stuff! Bruce

Going great guns! The engine bay would, for the most part, be either red-brown primer or (some might say) Elfenbein (pale cream). I've only ever painted them in primer colour. But as you say, unless you're going to show it off by leaving engine access panel open or (as I did once) leave the whole engine deck loose / removable, there's no point. One day, it would be nice to put a more 3D engine in there. But that's what bigger models are for, aren't they?!

That strip of silver looks a bit wide. Refer photos. You may wish to tone it down a bit.

What's that about, Andy? You will find that a bit of sprue will plug up those holes in the sponson undersides perfectly.

Yeah, I wouldn't be so concerned about it being a little over scale. The overall effect is going to win compared to the hair-curler look.

I'm not a fan of PE blurs. It's not too late to stick a pager motor inside is it? Nothing beats rotating prop blades to simulate rotating prop blades.

There are templates on the UAMF.org site for prop blur decals - assuming you have a suitable printer and decal paper.